doi:10.

5937/jaes11-3723

Paper number: 11(2013)2, 254, 99 - 105

APPLYING NUMERICAL METHOD IN THE

STRENGTH CALCULATION OF HIGH
PRESSURE STEAMLINE
Dragan ukanovi*
University of Pritina, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia
Dr Miroslav ivkovi
University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Engineering, Kragujevac, Serbia
Mr Aleksandar Jakovljevi
Electric Power Industry of Serbia
Dr Slobodan Savi
University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Engineering, Kragujevac, Serbia
This paper analyses the distribution of stress through steam line of medium superheated steam with
the special emphasis on the critical location, the bend, in order to estimate the remaining lifecycle of
a steam line. Moreover it presents the theoretical basis of the beam superelement with 2D cross-section segment which was used for analysis in PAK software. The obtained results of stress analysis
and estimated reliability of the construction after 200.000 hours of exploitation are shown.
Keywords: High pressure steam line, Beam superelement, PAK-software, Stress, Lifecycle of construction
INTRODUCTION
High pressure steamlines represent critical
components of thermal power facilities which
significantly affect the reliability and availability
of facilities as well as the safety and security of
personnel. Therefore, in their exploitation special attention should be given to monitoring and
reviewing their state, in order to estimate the remaining lifecycle. High pressure steamlines operate in the conditions of high temperature and
pressure on one side and of low-cycle fatigue
at the starting and stopping point of the facility
on the other side. Depending of constructions
there are several methods for analyzing the reliability of a complex system such as the Generic
Parts Count Analysis, the Failure Mode Effect
and Criticality Analysis, the Event Tree Analysis,
the Fault Tree Analysis as given in [08]. Applying
software package based on the theory of finite
elements enables modeling of constructions in
order to analyze stress and strain and to estimate reliability of construction during the remaining lifecycle [03]. This paper shows theoretical
basis of beam superelement with 2D cross section segment that the strength calculations are
based on. Thereafter the calculation of high
pressure steamline in PipePak software [01] is

presented in order to obtain the results of forces

and moments at the critical location of steamline.
Based on that data detailed stress analysis at
the critical location has been done using PAKS software [06] for calculation and FEMAP software [04] in the pre- and post-processing phase.
The obtained results have led to the relevant
conclusions on the strength and remaining lifecycle of construction.
BEAM FINITE ELEMENT OF DEFORMABLE
CROSS-SECTION AND GENERAL
GEOMETRY
The basic assumption is that for the part of the
construction which is to be replaced by one such
element, we can notice one direction (longitudinal axis) along which the structure is invariable
in geometric and material terms (Figure 1a).
Planes which can be placed orthogonally to the
longitudinal axis are the cross-sectional planes.
In the cross-sectional plane, we can determine
the shape and material structure of the crosssection, which can be arbitrary (Figure 1b). At
the reference beam axis whose direction coincides with the longitudinal axis the main beam
nodes are being defined. The basic assumption
is that each of such beam elements, which could

* University of Pritina, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Kneza Miloa 7, 38220 Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia;
dcukanovic@gmail.com

99

Dragan ukanovi - Applying numerical method in the strength calculation

of high pressure steamline

be of a very complex structure, can be modeled

by isoparametric subelements (Figure 1c). Since
the beam element consists of sub-elements (isoparametric 3D, a shell and a beam) it can be

considered as a superelement. The number and

type of subelements depend on the geometric
and material properties of the representative
cross-sections [07].

Figure 1: Modeling of a complex construction with beam superelement (a) longitudinal axis, (b) cross-section,
(c) subelements of beam superelement, (d) segments in the representative cross-section

Figure 2: The geometry of the beam superelement with 2D cross-section seg-

100

Journal of Applied Engineering Science 11(2013)2, 254

Dragan ukanovi - Applying numerical method in the strength calculation

of high pressure steamline

The representative cross-sections are beam

cross-sections in the main nodes of beam element. In the representative cross-section we
can see the cross-sections of each subelement
(Figure 1d). Cross-section of 3D subelement corresponds to the 2D (or surface) segment, crosssection of shell corresponds to 1D (or line) segment, cross-section of beam corresponds to 0D
(or point ) segment. Segments are described by
the nodes which are in the plane of the representative cross-sections and their position is specified
in relation to the coordinate systems connected to
the main beam nodes. One subelement in each
representative cross-section of beam element
has the appropriate segment that defines it. If all
relative motions are constrained, stiffness matrix
and force vector of subelements are directly added to the global stiffness matrix of the construction and to the global load vector. In the case of
joint relative displacements of superelements the
stiffness matrix and the force vector are formed
at the level of elements group. The total number
of equations for the group is obtained as the sum
of the number of equations corresponding to the
main beam nodes and nodes of all segments of
the cross-sections in the group.
The equilibrium equation for the group is

where
and
are vectors of relative and
global nodes displacement of segments corresponding to appropriate stiffness matrix , and
force vectors
, .
is stiffness matrix which
connects global and relative values of displacement and forces.
BEAM SUPERELEMENT WITH 2D SEGMENT
IN THE CROSS-SECTION
The geometry of beam superelement with coordinate systems and position vector, 3D subelement and 2D segment in the cross-section are
shown in the Figure 2.
LINEAR-ELASTIC STRESS ANALYSIS
The primary aim of modeling steam line in PipePak software was to obtain the values of forces and moments at the critical bend (Figure3)
for further detailed stress analysis using PAK-S
software for calculation as well as FEMAP in the
phases of pre- and post-processing.
Table 1 shows the dimensions of the pipe bend
based on which the model has been formed using FEMAP software.

(1)
Table 1. Dimensions of pipe bend
Diametre

Wall thickness

d1

d1

Tensed zone

Neutral zone 1

Pressed zone

Neutral zone 2

mm

mm

mm

mm

mm

mm

422.0

420.5

12.2

13.0

14.9

13.0

Figure 3: The forces and moments at the critical bend

Journal of Applied Engineering Science 11(2013)2, 254

101

Dragan ukanovi - Applying numerical method in the strength calculation

of high pressure steamline

Finite element (FE) model of bend is created by

modelling separately the cross-section (Figure
4) and the bend (Figure 6) and then combining
their *.dat file. The detailed description of the
procedure of obtaining the FE model of bend will
be explained in the next few steps. Based on the
data in the Table 1 the geometry of cross-section has been created. In Table 1 we can see
that diameters in the tensed and pressed zone
are different so that the cross-section is created
as two ellipses whose centers are moved 1,35
mm along the y-direction. The structure of the
steamline pipe bend is discretized by 2D finite
elements. FE model of pipe bend is discretized
at 3456 elements. 12 segments along the pipe
bend axis (at each 7.5), 48 segments along the

Figure 4: Finite element mesh

Figure 6 shows the FE model of pipe bend discretized by beam finite elements.

circumference of cross-section (at each 7.5)

and 6 layers of elements along wall thickness
(Figure 4) have been created. Segments along
the longitudinal and tangential direction are
equal while the distribution along the thickness
of the cross-section has been made in such a
way that the surface elements are thinner than
those in the middle section in order to be able to
more closely monitor changes in stress values
on the surface elements, that is, exactly where
this change is the most intense. A detail of the
finite element mesh along the wall thickness is
shown in Figure 5. Translation in x-direction of
nodes 1 and 3 and translation in y-direction of
nodes 2 and 4 are constrained. Pipe bend is under the pressure of 2.84 MPa.

Figure 5: Elements through the thickness of the wall

The set values for loads, forces and moments

were obtained as output result of the previously
mentioned analysis in PipePak software (Table 2).
Table 2: Forces and moments
Critical bend

Hot state
cross-section A

cross-section D

Fx (N)

355

-355

Fy (N)

- 725

5759

Fz (N)

10.694

-10.694

Mx (Nm)

58.466

- 68.576

My (Nm)

-4882

559

Mz (Nm)

- 835

211

Upon the modeling of the cross-section and pipe

bend, two files were obtained. By combining and
setting appropriate parameters of the files we receive one input file, ready for analysis in the PAKFigure 6: Finite element mesh

102

Journal of Applied Engineering Science 11(2013)2, 254

Dragan ukanovi - Applying numerical method in the strength calculation

of high pressure steamline

S software. The analysis performed in PAK-S is

based on the beam superelement the theoretical

basis of which is already given. The results of certain stresses are shown in Figures 7 and 8.

Figure 7: Radial and Tangential stresses

Journal of Applied Engineering Science 11(2013)2, 254

103

Dragan ukanovi - Applying numerical method in the strength calculation

of high pressure steamline

Figure 8: Axial and Equivalent stress

104

Journal of Applied Engineering Science 11(2013)2, 254

Dragan ukanovi - Applying numerical method in the strength calculation

of high pressure steamline

Based on the presented results of stress distribution we can identify the presence of large local
stresses (over 80 MPa), that exceed the standard material properties applicable to exploitation conditions, taking into account the fact that
the steam lines have been exploited for more
than 200,000 working hours [02]. Moreover, despite the influence of pipeline damage due to exploitation in the conditions of high temperature
and pressure as well as of low cycle fatigue at
the starting and stopping point of the facilities,
the analysis of the model showed that such large
stresses are the consequence of steam line support configuration [05].
CONCLUSION
The primary objective of this paper is to do stress
analysis in order to estimate the reliability of the
construction during the remaining lifecycle the
using software packages based on the finite element theory. The paper presents the theoretical basis of beam superelement with 2D cross
section segment, which PAK software is based
on. Moreover, based on the obtained results it
has been concluded that at the analyzed critical location there are local stresses that exceed
the allowable standard value for the steam line
which has already been exploited for more than
200,000 working hours. Further analysis of the
model has led to the conclusion that so large
stresses are the consequence of the steam line
support configuration.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The part of this research is supported by Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia, Grants TR32036
- Software development for solving coupled multiphysics problems.

Journal of Applied Engineering Science 11(2013)2, 254

REFERENCES
1) ALGOR PipePak, Pipe Stress Analysis and
Design System for PC Workstations, ALGOR
INC. (1993), Pittsburgh
2) American national standard Power piping,
Asme code for pressure piping, ASME/ANSI
B31.1, (2001), American society of Mechanical Engineering, USA
3) Dr Maksimovi S., Blai M, Maksimovi, M.
(2010): Design of constructions with respects to
fatigue and fracture mechanics, Journal of Applied Engineering Science (Istraivanja i projektovanja za privredu), Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 181-188
4) FEMAP User Guide, (2002), Unigraphic Solution Inc, Exton, USA
5) Jakovljevic A., (2004): Impact of damage
and stress state of material to the remaining
life cycle of high-pressure steam line (in Serbian), Beograd, master thesis
6) Kojic M., Slavkovic R., Zivkovic M., Grujovic
N., (2003) User Manual for PAK-finite element program for linear and nonlinear structural analysis and heat transfer, Kragujevac,
Faculty for Mechanical Engineering, University of Kragujevac
7) Kojic M., Slavkovic R., ivkovi M., Grujovic
N., (1998): Finite element method I (in Serbian), Kragujevac, Faculty for Mechanical
Engineering, University of Kragujevac
8) Pantelis N. Botsaris, E. I. Konstantinidis,
D. Pitsa, (2012): Systemic assessment and
analysis of factors affect the reliability of
wind, Journal of Applied Engineering Science
(Istraivanja i projektovanja za privredu), Vol.
10, No. 2, pp. 85-92
Paper sent to revision: 08.04.2013.
Paper ready for publication: 20.05.2013.

105